Bulgaria Foreign Affairs Minister, Rumiana Jeleva, stated Monday that Bulgaria has permission to construct Belene Nuclear Power Plant from the European Commission.

Jeleva, speaking after her participation in the “Energy Diplomacy and the EU Integrated Policy for Energy and Climate Change” conference in Sofia, said that “the one positive thing regarding the existing permission for constructing Belene NPP, is that there is such a thing.”

Regarding the pipeline Burgas-Alexandropolis natural gas pipeline Jeleva pointed out that there is new impetus to speak about the project, “especially after meeting of PM Borisov with our Greek partners.” It became clear, she said that the new Greek Government has the same environmental and the technological concerns as Bulgaria about implementing the project.

Concerning a possible new gas crisis, Jeleva said that problems can always be expected as Bulgaria is currently 100 % dependent from outside energy sources.

In her speech to the conference Jeleva said "Particular attention should turn to the specific features of Russian energy policy and Russia's role in European and global energy security," she added that her Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party would remain committed to the Nabucco pipeline project.

Jeleva concluded that “energy security requires the nascent Bulgarian energy diplomacy to take a more thorough look at the innovative energy technologies offered by the USA.”

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